thank you for being with us. >> greta: tonight, the head of the central intelligence agency, dave petraeus made himself blackmail material. petraeus resigned after admitting to cheating on his wife, raising more questions than answers. why now? just days before he was set to testify about four dead americans in libya? >> obviously the, the benghazi story, the terror attack, has put a lot of pressure on the white house and the senior intelligence officials, like general petraeus. this is a complete surprise. >> the timing is too perfect for the obama administration, just as the administration claimed it was purely coincidence that the benghazi consulate was attacked on september 11. now it's purely coincidence that the extra-marital affair

surfaces right after the election, not before, but right after. but before the intelligence chiefs going to capital hill to be grilled. >> we had heard speculation that he may have resigned for personal reasons. one of the reason, we were getting word of was the possibility of an extra-marital affair. we have confirmed it. a letter has been smut submitted by david petraeus himself. >> just got off the phone with someone who has talked with general petraeus, just the past few moments. the message was, a couple of points. one was, tell the truth. it was my request. the white house didn't pressure me to do this. this had nothing to do with benghazi. nothing at all. this was my request. this has nothing to do with it. i want to testify about benghazi. there was nothing to do with the white house pressuring me to leave this job. >> this reads like something you

wouldn't imagine, with a plot like this, five days before the hearing. it does legitimately raise some eyebrows on the timing. >> do you think it's a coincidence? cia director david petraeus resigning days before he is supposed to testify about benghazi on capitol hill. katherine herig is here. take us back to 3:00 and tell me what we have. >> what we have learned about the chain of events, it set into motion on thursday. fox was told that the cia director had a very important meeting at a cia headquarters with the people coming in from out of town, a couple of hours before, it was cancelled abruptly. we know on thursday, he went to the white house and talked specifically to the president about resigning from his position, for personal reasons. then on friday, that resignation was accepted by the president. so it's really been a chain of events over the last 48 hours. >> caller: do we have any information whether or not the white house or anyone else

learned about this before yesterday? or wednesday? >> the public statements from the white house is that they learned about it wednesday. but hia conversation this evening with someone who is very familiar with the notification process to capitol hill. and what we were told is that once someone of the director's statue comes within the scope of an fbi investigation, not the subject, but the scope, there has to be immediate briefings to the ranking members and the chairman of the house and senate intelligence committees. we are not clear, at least tonight, that that happened. >> greta: all right. when did this affair begin? when the afir is secret from it began until today, is a time that someone is potentially blackmail material. do we know -- not where itenned, but gone to the public domain. >> we don't have the specific information on when the affair began. but once the story broke, the cia director was reine, within a half hour, several people at fox

got multiple folkphone calls, pointing to the author and specifically to the thyme frame in afghanistan when the biography was being written by broadwell and the cia director petraeus was the commander. we are talking about 2010, into 2011, when he took the position at the cia. >> greta: i take it when you go into the cia, there there is a security check or you fill out forms under oath, egg you are not blackmail material, have you nothing to create a problem for national security. any information about that? >> cia told fox this evening that they are responsible, not the fbi, but they are responsible for the background check approximate and for the security clearance check. this is significant because again, what this tells us in our reporting is that this information, by the fbi was separate. it was not in connection to the original clearance investigation, or the backgroined investigation.

something happened within the last 14 months to trigger it. >> greta: let me look at it. a positive step. september 11 was the attack. within 24 hour, according to the associated press, cia station chief in libya report, it is evident it was carry the out by mill tan, not a spontaneous mob. cia within 24 horrs says it's a video. september 13, two days later, thursday, represented that the fbi and national counterterrorism center, they go to capitol hill. they say, evidence that it was al qaeda or al qaeda-affiliated, that they intercepts claiming responsibility by a particular group. the next day, september 14, cia director petraeus goes to capitol hill. he makes the report and raises the video and the protest in direct conflict to what the day before, the fbi and ctc said and what the cia station chief said, who was in libya on the day of the attack. >> these are critical evens in

the first week of september. this sets out the conflict that the lawmakers saw between what director petraeus was saying as the cause, what fox news was told by lawmakers, that he was very much wedded to the narrative of the administration, that it was a flash mob or connected to the video. and this was in direct conflict with what the fbi was stating to lawmakers. this is the first time in our reporting of fox news that we have heard lawmakers express anger and frustration with director petraeus because this is someone who in many respect, until this point, had been untouchable. >> greta: supposed to testify next week. he is no longer the director of the cia. but is he going to testify? he's a civilian. >> the cia told fox he is gone. he is out. they are coming to get his stuff. he is out. the expectation is that the acting director would testify. but what fox was told by members on the hill is that they have a couple of options.

they can request david petraeus to testify as a civilian. they can subpoena him. if he does not wish to come, they would anticipate that he may lawyer up in this situation, given the s. but we heard from congressman cain this evening on fox that he feels it is essential that the cia director testify about these events because he was the operations guy. he was the nuts and bolts. the director of national intelligence is the energy, manager, not the nuts-and-bolts guy here. >> greta: thank you. former new york city mayor rudy guiliani smell ace coverup on the benghazi attack. what does he think now? mayor giuliani is here. good evening. >> good evening, greta. >> greta: sir, have you any thoughts about the developments? >> i do think the plot thickeps and it becomes more and more ridiculous, what is going on here. we find out there was a drone attack on november 1, that was clearly suppressed by the obama

administration, five, six days. now, this has to have been suppressed also. they didn't just find out about this today or yesterday, the fbi is apparently investigating this. also, general petraeus, to me -- and i feel heartbroken about this, is and always will be a truly exception american hero. he is ike an eisenhower. eisenhower had an affair also, he didn't resign. the idea that david petraeus can be blackmailed because he has a woman friend is totally ridiculous -- >> greta: well -- >> this man has put his life at risk for his counselry over and over again. somebody's going to come to him and say, you better give us secrets or i am going to tell your wife you have a girlfriend -- you have to grow up. both our presidents would have had to resign over this. >> greta: let me play devil's advocate, if he is vulnerable enough to want to hide something -- the reason why you tell all in these investigations when you get the job, you want

to disclose them, is so that you don't become material for blackmail. there is also the added problem that as, i a man of his great stature, it does send a message to others in the military about honor, trust and discipline, which is so important -- [overlapping dialogue] >> but then, you know, greta, this is only been going on for 2,000 years. under this standard issue we probably would have lost half our generals and half of our president it's. >> greta: that may very well be. >> a new standard. eisenhower would have gone, rit before the battle of d-day, he would have had to resign because of kate sommersby. we have to grow up. >> greta: explain to me -- i think he is the one who ought to grow up, i say that with some level of -- sarcasm. the cia station chief in libya reports evidence that it was

carried out by militant, not a spontaneous mob or a video. two days -- the next day, september 13, representative of the fbi and national counter-terrorism center go to capitol hill and say they it looks like al qaeda or an al qaeda-affiliated attack, intercepts are claiming responsibility. the next day, september 14, now it's for the first time, at least as far as we can figure on the time line, cia director petraeus who comes up -- who talks about in this briefing about a video and a group in clear conflict with his own station chief said within 24 hours. what happened? >> this is -- i think this is the reason for the resignation. i don't think it's over the affair, the fbi finding the affair. and in fact, if they did find it, why didn't we know about this a week or two weeks ago? they must have known about this affair, two, three, four weeks

ago. it is just like the drone. they bue about the drone on november 1. how they hid that -- i mean, this is an administration that is practicing now serial deception. i mean, it's almost like, you know, when first you practice to deceive, you just can't stop. you spin a web of lies. it started from the first moment that this happened. now it's getting more and more complicated. >> greta: i assume you can understand our extreme cureiosity here -- >> absolutely. >> greta: fox has been here since it happened. fox was the only news organization excluded from a beef -- briefing by the cia. have you a cia director, former director now, who wasn't answering questions about benghazi. he won't be testifying in a hearing. fox is included from a beef briefing. the timing of the resignation is nybble. you can understand our extreme cureiosity -- >> it is totally justified. and it's in the national interest.

now we will have a hearing next week, it is man who knows the fact, david petraeus, the only man who can tell us what the cia knew, what they did, he is want going to testify. this is a very convenient way to get the administration out of a very, very difficult situation. but -- this is inevitable. this is like watergate. this is inevitable. this is all going to come out. it may take a month, it may take five months, but this is all going to come out. every new coverup they do make its much, much worse. >> there is nothing to prevent him from testifying, he can't testify to classified information. mayor, thank you, sir. >> take care. >> thank you. of course, what about the timing? general petraeus admits to cheating on his wife, just before he is supposed to testify about libya. will we hear what general petraeus does know? former senior adviser to ronald reagan, pat buchanan is here.

>> a great general, tremendously respects, but this is very troubling, it is timing of t. you talk about him being blackmail material. if he was blackmail material, he became blackmail material from the day he came into the central -- >> greta: as a general, too. you know, if you are hiding anything like that, the whole period -- it's more serious after that. >> the cia, we learned from katherine, did what the fbi usually does, a full-field investigation of someone to make sure they don't have problems like that. how could any full field investigation of general petraeus in afghanistan miss this if it had happend? when did people find this out? so it sounds like general petraeus, what was you call blackmail material from the day he entered the cia, until the day he left. the mayor had a good point. why leave now? did he become a security risk now? or it was because the scandal

was going to break or because it was the benghazi thing that is coming up? here's general petraeus's problem, as you alluded to on september 14. september 11, his own safe house in benghazi, with a couple of hero seal there is, went over also to the compound, they were killed in a fire fight, on and off that lasted seven hours. are you telling me that the head of the cia did not know three days later that this was a fire fight at an al qaeda attack in and he thought it was a protest over a video? >> greta: that's what he said -- >> that's what he said. that is why the congressman are so angry that they were deliberately misled. now i get into surmise. it sounds to me like, when susan rice and the others said, we got this intelligence, they were being fed this intelligence by general petraeus' cia. >> greta: what would be the motive?

if general petraeus is saying on the 14th -- friday, the 14th of september, he is telling capitol hill, it's a video, but within 24 hours of the event, back-dating it to september 12, his own station chief, it is reported by the second quartered press, not fox, the this, ia -- cia station chief in libya says there is evidence that it is carried out by militants. no indication of a mob upset about a video. >> you know, general petraeus was the one that went up and told the congress this. it looks to me like the centrallibleigence agency generally and general petraeus specifically, moved this story. i would not be surprised if susan rice testifies and the white house guys testify to the effect that general petraeus was giving them this intel jeps. there is another issue here. i have to undergo full field fbi investigation when i went into the nixon white house.

they went back to your college that. full field investigation, results went straight to the white house chief of staff. few if the cia investigated its own new director and did not discover this affair in afghanistan, they ought to all be fired. and if they did discover this who, did they send the report to? did the white house know -- did they say, okay, he had a problem, he had an affair, don't worry about it, it's over? that -- >> greta: katherine says have you to report it immediately to the intel committees on capitol hill with such a high rank in national security. >> all right. that raises the question, did the cia investigation of petraeus miss this affair? because you have to -- a general over there, that's all over the place. he an affair -- it's all over the place. >> greta: i suspect it was talked about over there. i suspect. i don't think -- probably, those things are not usually a big

secret. >> they are not a big secret. my guess is that the people who got the information say, okay, he an affair. eisenhower had one, macarthur had one -- >> greta: everybody's saying that, going back 50 years. i think we are in a different point -- >> let me ask you -- >> greta: everybody had a fit when the secret service had a prostitute before the president arrived. i have a list of senator who is said they were scandalized about the security of the president of the nuzz columbia. >> general patton had a number of affairs in world war ii. are you going to fire him. >> look! look, i can understand how people would say, this is done and this is over. all right? that raises -- it's behind why then, did general petraeus leave now? why didn't he just say, it came out -- if it was going to come out thappenned, it happened a long time ago, it's over. most press people say, it happened. that's it. >> greta: i am not concerned about the affair. im concerned about the descries

discrepinancies in the stories. we are to go. i want to you stay with us and talk to you later. we have much more to talk b. straight ahead, what is congress going to do to get answers about benghazi? also, we are getting closer to the doom of the fiscal cliff. today, president obama and [speaking spanish] ooh speaker of the house, john boehner are telling different stories. will they break the stalemate? for over 60,000 california foster children,

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petraeus abruptly resigning after admitting to an extra-marital affair with his biographer. that's bad. but it gets worse. the resignation just days before general petraeus was set to testify at congressional hearings. coincidence? >> good evening, how are you? >> greta: i'm very well. congress pan, the affair, i mean, for the most part, i am trying to separate this out. it is a matter for general petraeus and his wife. but there is -- there is some parts of it that do have an implication. one is whether or not it's a security breach and that it should have been picked up and

turned over to the house intel commits and whether or not that could be used as blackmail against him. your thought, sir? >> well, even someone as lowly as an assistant u.s. attorney has to undergo a background check with very invasive questions and you are expected to tell the truth and you are asked under penalty of perjury. so you can increase that expoinentially. i am sure they would have liked to have known that information in a timely fashion. but i will tell you this -- and i do lament the personal ramifications, but the fact he has resigned has nothing to do with whether or not he will be subpoenaed to congress. i hope we don't have to subpoena a four-star general. i hope he would come voluntarily. but if he won't, he will be subpoenaed. none of with what happened today is a defense to a subpoena.

>> greta: all right. would you agree that there is no sort of security problem, or even a blackmail problem, if for instance, his wife knew about it, and he had told the fbi or the cia, whoever conducted it, so he wasn't vulnerable to outside, someone coming in to try to influence him. would you agree to that? >> it could be. i mean, that's a very fact-intensive inquiry. it could be his wife knew, but his mother didn't or his wife knew but his kids didn't. i would suspect with men like general petraeus, where honor means something, losing your life is secondary to losing your honor. the fact that your wife knows something didn't necessarily get you off the hook in terms of losing your honor. >> greta: getting back to benghazi. is he an essential part of this inquiry? i have read a timeline of do i have trouble with the fact that -- i don't know what happened between the time the cia station chief in libya said that it was essentially a

terrorism group, a terrorist or a militant group and the time he went to capitol hill. i don't know where in the world the video came up. but do you expect he will testify and explain that? >> he's going to have to. he is either a witness in our case in chief, or he is going to be a rebuttal witness after susan price and others blame him for their failure of intelligence and failure of information. so to put it back in a courtroom, he is going to be one of our witnesses in our case in chief or we are going to wait until someone else invokes his name and he will be's rebuttal witness. but there is no way to get to the bottom of benghazi without david petraeus. while he may not be around next week because he has personal matters. the week after that, and the week after that and the week after that -- this excuse will run stale. >> greta: will the unanswered question tonight is what provoked the resignation, or what provoked? was someone going public with

it? was there a problem? or was it benghazi and he didn't want to testify? we don't know what sort of provoked the confession which resulted in the resignation. it is like, that's sort of -- that is a missing piece of information tonight. >> well, the questions are a lot better than the answers, at this point. but as your previous guest were talking, i thought about the book "crime and punishment." sometimes it's just guilt. there is no explanation better than guilt. i don't know david petraeus. i sat next to him at a dinner one time. i hardly know him. i don't know what the motivation was. we will find out. benghazi is not going anywhere, despite the fact that most of the members of the so-called mainstream media have ignored it so far, in a perverse way, the fact that we have a salacious component will mean they are gorntd cover. we are going to find out what happened to those four murdered american, one way or another. >> greta: well, i think that, at

least most of the people i talked to would really like to know, it has gotten more bizarre as the days have marched on with a different story and incomplete information and all the information will be greatly appreciated. thank you, sir. >> thank you, ma'am. >> greta: straight ahead, president obama versus the speaker of the house, john boehner, digging in their heels on avoiding the fiscal cliff. time is running out. the latest is next. another bush family member is getting ready to run for political office. which one is it? start guessing. that's coming up. ♪

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>> well, it didn't take long, talk of compromise, post postelection, turning into stalemate. john boehner and barack obama not budging as we rapidly approach the fiscal cliff. >> 2013 should be the year we begin to solve our debt through tax reform and entitlement reform. i am proposing we avert the fiscal cliff together, in a manner that insures that 2013 is finally the yirr that our government comes to grips with a major problems that are facing it. >> on tuesday night, we found out that the majority of americans agree with my approach. and that includes democrats, independents and a lot of republicans, across the country, as well as independent economists and budget experts. that is how you reduce the deficit, with a balanced approach. >> four years of the obama administration, and the economic

policies, they are clearly anti-business, anti-entrepreneur, they are anti-job creation. >> when speaker boehner and others have talked about saying that revenue can be on the table, i think that is a sign that the president appreciates that recognizes that we need to compromise here, that we need to come together and take a balanced approach. >> i want to be clear, i am not wedded to every detail of my plan. i am open to compromise. i am hope to new ideas. i am committed to solving our fiscal challenges. but i refuse accept any approach that isn't balanced. >> of course, everything washington does doesn't solve the problem. all washington does is exacerbate the problem. they create a problem. they say they are the only ones to fix it, they fix it and the problem gettings bigger. >> this is an opportunity for the president to lead. this is his moment to engage the congress on a solution that can pass both chambers. i think we both understand that

trying to find a way to avert the fiscalg cliff is important for our country, joining us, former adviser to president ronald reagan, pat buchanan. it is really too bad that this is so serious for so many americans and the whole country. watch the politicians try to work this out. >> well, this is -- this is james dean and buzz and rebel without a cause and they are headed for the cliff in the stolen cars, first one that jumps out is the chicken and the other fella went over the cliff. but i think they are going to get a deal. i think bane ercannot go home to his people having raised tax rates. i think boehner and mitch mcconnell will say no increase in tax rate, 35% is it. i think the president will concede on that point. i think bainer and mcconnell will then accept the idea of cutting culling or capping the deductions each individual and the higher brackets can take,

set a top limit on the deductions they can take and that will increase the revenue flow into the federal government. at the same time, the two congressmen, republicans, preserve the rates argument. they won't make all of their folks happy, but i think that's the deal in the works. >> greta: a couple of problems. number 1 is, the fact that -- today at least, i am always stunned when -- with the exception of senator tom coburn, i barely hear anyone talking about the tremendous amount of waste and fraud. we put up the example of the guy in the bathtub with the wine glass, which is a tiny, tiny bit, but it's representative of the mind-set here. no waste and frawpd fraud. they won't raise the tax rates, but when you do put caps on deductions, you are raising the effective rate. i mean, i guess they get -- i mean, i don't -- that's fineful but it's like, don't tell me you are not raising the tax rates when you do that -- that you are not raising taxes.

>> they are raising tax revenue, but the rates would stay the same. the deductions would simply go. it's more than semantics. let's take mitt romney's tax return. 20% he gave to charity. if you cap the detoukses of 10% of income, a lot of charitable deductions would not be taxable and he would -- >> greta: or not -- >> the actual rate would go up. >> greta: maybe some people would be discouraged. cutting the deductions, i would hope that for people, for the mortgage deduction is so important for so many americans, i would assume that -- this would be -- the wealthy people. >> the realtors would go bananas, people in the housing industry because the mortgage interest deduction is a real incent testify buy houses and rental properties. >> greta: and savings. >> a love us older folks who have paid off our mortgages, it doesn't affect all. but young people, who got high

mornings -- >> greta: tell affect them. >> it really affects them. but interest rate deduction, pose you capped it at $24,000 a person per year. what is that? $2,000 a month or something? then you take care of all of your middle-class homeowners and you take the folks in the $3, $4, $5 million houses who have leveraged them and they would get hammered urk i like simpson-bowles, i like the members on the committee. they work really hard t. didn't make everybody happy. but it seemed like it was at least doing something and making big inroads. >> i think the real problem will be in the piece you mentioned early earlier, the spending side. the democratic party, what is it in business for? its whole pride and joy, social security, medicare, medicaid, head start, food stamp, school lunches, school loans. all of these programs. harry reid and those folks coming to washington, are they

going to cut and chop that whole area? republicans are not going to want cuts in defense. so are they going to get that piece of it done? that's where i have my real doubts. the second one is, if you, as you indicated, the tacks taken out of people's income, at the beginning of the year, if they go along with a deal like that, what does that do to an economy, which is moving along at 1 1/2 or 2 ?rs. nobody suggests you raise tax when is the economy's chugging along at 1 or 2%. what is the philosophy behind this, other than it's neo-marxist, let's go after the rich guys and hammer them. >> greta: pat, thank you. always nice to see you. >> coming up, republican and democratic lawmakers say they didn't see it coming. so many question, why the general petraeus resignation now? is it benghazi investigation, in any way related? our panel is here to talk about. that and then two former presidents and a former

governor, now another bush family member is getting ready to run. which one is it? what is he running for? in two minutes. is what drives us to broadcast the world's biggest events in 3d, or live to your seat high above the atlantic ocean. it's what drives us to create eco-friendly race tracks, batteries that power tomorrow's cars, nearlyndestructible laptops, and the sustainable smart towns of the future.

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and this week, get $200 off the hp envy dv6 notebook. staples. that was easy. u.d are we going to see another bush on the ballot in 2014? george p. bush, the son of former governor jeb bush, nephew of george w. bush and the grandson of george w.h. bush. he is a fort worth attorney special a rising star among hispanic conservatives. he didn't list which office he plans to seek. but republicans across the state, cheevering that another bush is coming to texas ballots. last august, george p. bush was promoted to deputy finance chairman of the texas republican party. what do you think he is planning? which office do you think he's

eyeing? we are back in 2 minutes.

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>> will the resignation of general petraeus affect the benghazi investigation? but first, the headlines. >> the pentagon is offering a timeline of the military's response to the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. leon panetta learned about it 15 minutes after it began. the first special prayings team arrived 14 hours after it was over. by then, chris stevens and three other americans were dead. the military's blaming long traveling distances for the delay. the judge sentencing an ohio teenager for his role with phony crases list offers to job seekers. the jury rejected the claim that he feared for his life if he

didn't cooperate with the triggerman, shooting 3 people. now back to record roar. >> cia director, petraeus abruptly resigned, for personal reasons, cheating on his wife. but the timing is raising eyebrows. in days he is supposed to go to capitol hill to testify on benghazi. joining me is bob cusack and steve hayez and byron york. byron... go aheadanism the fbi investigating the cia director in the heat of a presidential campaign and the white house apparently doesn't know about it. and the-- the opposition party in congress is hot on the heels of the cia about this debauch nel libiasm i mean, it's an insane situation. and we need to know more about it. a few minutes ago, a republican

who was until 2011, chairman of the house intel committee, sent a tweet that said petraeus resignation will get worse, more here than meets the eye. i don't know if that's true, but it has to be investigated. >> greta: steve? >> well, it's interesting that the white house is saying that the president didn't know until -- until he was informed yesterday, i guess, others at the white house were told wednesday. i was told by talking to some intelligence sources that i that the fbi has been looking into this for a while -- >> greta: what's a while. >> i was told for a while. i don't have a thyme frame. but that suggests longer than two days. if that's the case, it makes you wonder, did bob mueller, the head of the fbi, know this and not report it up the chain? not tell anybody at the white house? it was interesting to me that the white house said the president didn't know. were other people know? did other people at the white house know this? i would imagine that if bob

mueller knew this, other people at the white house knew this. >> greta: he's the head of the cia. we are not talking about a lower-level job. this is a big job. >> yeah, you could be compromised. that's the concern here from the fbi's standpoint. the new york times reporting that the house and senate intel committees didn't know about it until this week, though they should be briefed on this type of thing. it's a major problem. also, i mean, he has a detail, he's the cia chief. if he was messing around, didn't the detail know about it? >> greta: unless it predated his timive that's tru. we tonight know. >> what is the role of the timing here? obviously, this was going on well before the election. have you the election going on. you have republicans -- some of whom wanted to make more political issue out of benghazi and then you had this -- potentially explosive development going on. why did we find out about it immediately after the election? want before? >> greta: how about senator dianne feinstein, in theic chair of the senate select committee

on intel in she said that the president shouldn't have accepted the resignation. >> yeah, look, i think that's crazy. first of all, the message it would send, if people knew what he was doing or had done and remained in this position, that would send a terrible message to the cia workforce. it's shocking that she would say that, given what little we know, what little we know is troubling. given the timing and the fact that it comes day after the election and days before he was scheduled to testify on benghazi, remember, he played a very controversial role. you had briefings from the folks at the pentagon from, folks at the fbi, in the days immediately preceding petraeus' briefing the intelligence committee on september 14. petraeus told a somewhat different story than the others told -- >> greta: not somewhat. it was profoundly different. the cia's station chief in libya, reported within 24 hours that it was a militant. >> petraeus in his testimony before the house intelligence

committee on september 14, two days later, said it was a video, basically, overruled his top cia official on the ground in benghazi, in telling that story. >> greta: stand by. straight ahead, the faceoff over the fiscal cliff. president obama inviting congressional leers to the white house. but will they get anywhere? next. and b vitamins for natural energy, i'm ready for whatever they get into. get your free sample at myemergenc.com. stay healthy and feel the good.

>> president obama and speaker of the house, john boehner, both talking about a big game about compromise. but do they have a different dfgdz of compromise than the rest of us? neither is willing to budge on tax cuts, so is there any hope of avoiding the fiscal cliff? bob, where are we going? >> i don't know. we are not going to get a solution. john boehner didn't want to have any type of grand bargain. he wants to wait for the new congress to be seated. how you do a temporary punt. obama has the leverage. he won re-election. so where we go from here, i think you are going to see a lot of political games next week when congress comes back to town. potentially, we go deep into december. >> the president is holding most of the cards here, he won re-election and the republicans are absolutely terrified of going over the cliff. the tax cuts expire. the president and democrats propose a bill to restore the tax cuts to all but the top

bracket and the republicans say, no, no, no. we don't want to do that. we have to restore the tax cuts to the rich people. they don't want to be in that situation, they can't let themselves get in that situation. >> which is why, i think you saw john boehner come out pretty aggressively this week and say he's open to a compromise. the key word in his statement and the statement he made before the election was tax rates. he doesn't want to see the rates go up. >> greta: that's the washington game. you know, they are not going to raise the rates, but they get rid of deductions so the amount of tax you pay does-- the tax you pay does go up. i mean, that's -- when they play that game, i roll my eyes. >> one of them told me, mitt romney, on the campaign trail... suggested limiting deductions for higher-income earners. the dedux like mortgage interest and charitable -- >> but people don't have. >> they are going on raise tacks.

>> but the rich people don't have mornings. so it doesn't matter if you get rid -- they don't have them. their houses are paid for. so get rid of the deduction. >> people $250 do have mortgages. >> but as you go farther up the food chain, financially, and that was what i think president obama wanted to get those people to pay. >> can we point out the irony of this context isn't president obama has twice argued that raising taxes when the economy is struggling would hurt the economy, hurt any recovery. now he's saying, staking his ground and saying, i will not sign anything that doesn't include this proposal, that i have said will diagram the -- damage the economy. >> greta: wasn't the analysis, correct me if i am wrong, even if the tax increase went in, it would pay for eight days of the federal government. so woe are arguing about eight days of revenue. and no effort to restructure the government or collect waste and fraud. >> correct. he also said that, by the way, at a time when there was less --

more economic growth than there is now. the growth situation is worse than when he said hee we shouldn't raise taxes. >> he has incentive to get this done as quickly as possible. his honeymoon is only going to be so long. he wants the immigration reform done. >> greta: and the benghazi hearing this week. >> gentlemen, thank you. coming up, there is big news about black friday. that's next. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age. it has more of 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day 50+. tomeet the 5-passenger. ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait,

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>> greta: tonight there is good news for retailers and shoppers well, sort of. here is jimmy kimmel. >> walmart says they'll open doors for black friday sale this, is a big sale, everyone goes and kills each other, they're going to open two hours earlier, meaning sales will begin at 8:00 p.m. on thanksgiving. why spend thanksgiving fighting with her family when you can fight a stranger?